Foxtail Millet (Navane/Korralu/Thennai) Fried ‘Rice’

Veggie Fried Rice – somehow this has become synonymous with street food for me. The expert street vendors in Bangalore quickly whip up batches of fried rice! Actually it is pretty simple to put together and takes less than 30 min to do it at home! It is a perfect way to sneak in all those nice veggies – especially for fussy eaters. Who won’t eat fried rice for lunch? And dinner! 😀 You can lots of personal variations to this simple recipe and turn it into a family favorite 🙂

In this recipe I have swapped the rice out for Foxtail Millet (Navane in Kannad, Korralu in Telugu and Thenai in Tamil). This is a commonly available millet type and is a powerhouse of nutrition. There are a lot of different varieties of millets and you can use them based on availability in your area. Millets have a lot of fiber and because of this they get digested slowly. This ensures that blood sugar levels do not spike. You can definitely use other types of whole grains here instead of millets too if you prefer.

Method

Wash the millet thoroughly in cold water. Then take a large pan – add the millets and roast for about 3-4 min on low heat.

Now add 2 cups of water to this and bring the mixture to a boil on high heat.

Place a lid on this and let the millet cook. Stir occasionally in between.

While the millet is cooking, prep the veggies. Chop the onions, green beans, cabbage and carrots really finely.

Take another large pan/wok. Add 1 tbsp of oil. Add the chopped onions. Sprinkle some salt and sauté on medium high for 2 minutes. Then add the other chopped veggies. Sprinkle some salt and water and let the veggies cook. You don’t want to over cook the veggies – it should be half cooked and still have a crunch! Once the veggies are done turn off the heat.

Once the millets are also done, fluff the millet grains with a spoon or fork. The add the cooked millets to the veggies. On medium high heat mix everything well.

Add 1-2 tbsp oil to help everything mix well. Add salt and black pepper powder as per your taste. I also added some chilli sauce to add some spice!

Once everything is mixed, have the stove on for a minute to heat everything up really well. Then the fried ‘rice’ is ready to be served!

You can add in green peppers or capsicum. You can add in 2 cloves of minced garlic or spring onion as well!